Remote health monitoring and maintenance system

Abstract

A system and method is described that enables a health care provider to monitor and manage a health condition of a patient. The system includes a health care provider apparatus operated by a health care provider and a remotely programmable patient apparatus that is operated by a patient. The health care provider develops a script program using the health care provider apparatus and then sends the script program to a remotely programmable patient apparatus through a communication network such as the World Wide Web. The script program is a computer-executable patient protocol that provides information to the patient about the patient's health condition and that interactively monitors the patient health condition by asking the patient questions and by receiving answers to those questions. The answers to these health related questions are then forwarded as patient data from the remotely programmable patient apparatus to the health care provider apparatus through the communication network. The patient data may also include information supplied by a physiological monitoring device such as a blood glucose monitor that is connected to the remotely programmable patient apparatus. When the patient data arrives at the health care provider apparatus, the patient data is processed for further management of the patient's health condition by the health care provider, such as forwarding another script program to the remotely programmable patient apparatus.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This is a continuing application claiming the priority of the following applications: [0002] (1) application Ser. No. 08 / 484,925, filed June 7, 199-5, which is a FWC of application Ser. No. 08 / 233,397, filed Apr. 26, 1994 (now abandoned), which in turn is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 07 / 977,323, filed Nov. 17, 1992 (which has since issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,307,263); and [0003] (2) application Ser. No. 08 / 946,341, filed Oct. 7, 1997, which claims priority from provisional application Ser. No. 60 / 041,746 filed March 28, 1997 and from provisional application Ser. No. 60 / 041,751 filed Mar. 28, 1997; all of which are incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0004] The present invention relates to remote health monitoring and maintenance system that enables a bidirectional interaction between a patient and a health care provider regarding a health care condition associated with the patient, the bi-directional interaction emplo...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The invention is a new and useful system for healthcare maintenance that converts a small handheld microprocessor-based device (such as a video game system) into a healthcare monitoring system. The system includes a data management unit, a program cartridge, and a monitoring unit. The data management unit has a program that allows it to operate with the handheld device and provides educational or motivational material. The handheld device is easy to operate and has a display screen and buttons for user input. The system also allows for remote communication with a healthcare professional and can download data for analysis and record keeping. Overall, the invention provides a convenient and effective tool for healthcare monitoring."

Problems solved by technology

Despite what has been achieved, numerous drawbacks and disadvantages still exist.

However, the event codes of currently available microprocessor blood glucose monitoring systems provide only limited capability for tagging and tracking blood glucose test results according to food intake and other relevant factors.

This method of recording information not only requires subjective judgment by the system user, but will not suffice in a situation in which successfully controlling the user's diabetes requires the recording and tracking of relatively accurate information relating to food intake, exercise, or medication (e.g., insulin dosage).

The use of event codes to establish subcategories of blood glucose test results has an additional disadvantage or drawback.

In particular, although alphanumeric display devices are typically used in currently available microprocessor-based blood glucose monitoring systems, the display units are limited to a single line of information having on the order of six characters.

This limitation makes the system more difficult to use because the diabetic must either memorize his or her assignment of event codes or maintain a list that defines the event codes.

The limited amount of data that can be displayed at any one time presents additional drawbacks and disadvantages.

The above-discussed display limitations and other aspects of currently available blood glucose monitoring systems is disadvantageous in yet another way.

As previously mentioned, currently available systems do not allow associating blood glucose test results with attendant quantitative information relating to medication, food intake, or other factors such as exercise that affect a person's blood glucose level at any particular point in time.

Thus, currently available blood glucose monitoring systems have little or no capability for the generating and display of trend information that may be of significant value to a diabetic or the diabetic's healthcare professional.

Although such a data transfer provision allows a healthcare professional to analyze blood glucose data collected by a diabetic, this aspect of currently available blood glucose monitoring systems has not found widespread application.

First, the downloading and subsequent analysis feature can only be used by system users that have ready access to a computer that is programmed with appropriate software and, in addition, have both the knowledge required to use the software (and the inclination to do so).

This same problem exists with respect to data transfer to (and subsequent analysis by) a healthcare professional.

Current microprocessor-based self-care health monitoring systems generally do not provide information that is timely and complete enough for a healthcare professional to recognize and avert problems before relatively severe symptoms develop.

Too often, a need for a change in medication and / or other changes in therapeutic regimen is not detected until the child's condition worsens to the point that emergency room care is required.

Further, currently available microprocessor-based health monitoring systems have not been designed with children in mind.

As previously mentioned, such devices are not configured for sufficient ease of use in situations in which it is desirable or necessary to record and track quantitative information that affects the physical condition of the system user (e.g., medication dosage administered by a diabetic and food intake).

However, the currently available monitoring systems provide nothing in the way of motivation for a child to use the device and, in addition, include little or nothing that educates the child about his or her condition or treatment progress.

The lack of provision for the entering of alphanumeric data also can be a disadvantage.

For example, currently available blood glucose monitoring systems do not allow the user or the healthcare professional to enter information into the system such as medication dosage and other instructions or data that is relevant to the user's self-care health program.

The above-discussed disadvantages and drawbacks of currently available microprocessor-based blood glucose monitoring systems also have been impediments to adopting the basic technology of the system for other healthcare situations in which establishing and maintaining an effective regimen for cure or control is dependent upon (or at least facilitated by) periodically monitoring a condition and recording that condition along with time and date tags and other information necessary or helpful in establishing and maintaining a healthcare program.

However, the success of these programs is dependent upon the ability of the healthcare providers to monitor the patients remotely to avert medical problems before they become complicated and costly.

Unfortunately, no convenient and cost effective monitoring system exists for the patients who have the greatest need for monitoring, the poor and the elderly.

However, computers are too expensive to give away and the patients who already own computers are only a small fraction of the total population.

Thus, these patients do not have the greatest unmet medical needs.

Although internet terminals are somewhat less costly than personal computers, they are still too expensive to give away to patients.

Moreover, monthly on-line access charges are prohibitive for poor patients.

Unfortunately, these monitoring devices are only designed to collect physiological data from the patients.

They do not allow flexible and dynamic querying of the patients for other information, such as quality of life measures or psycho-social variables of illness.

One disadvantage of these systems is that they either require a patient to call in to a central facility to be monitored or require the central facility to call the patient according to a rigid monitoring schedule.

Non-compliant patients will typically wait until an emergency situation develops before contacting their healthcare provider, thus defeating the purpose of the monitoring system.

If the central facility calls each patient according to a monitoring schedule, it is intrusive to the patient's life and resistance to the monitoring grows over time.

Another disadvantage of these conventional interactive response systems is that they are prohibitively expensive for poor patients.

Further, it is difficult to identify each patient uniquely using these systems.

Moreover, these systems are generally incapable of collecting medical data from monitoring devices, such as blood glucose meters, respiratory flow meters, or heart rate monitors.

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